US
confirms strikes in 'vicinity,' says no evidence they hit school
US forces
were conducting an airdrop of Kurdish fighters around the Syrian town
of al-Mansour, near the ISIS capital city of Raqqa, and carrying out
heavy airstrikes to cover the drop. Among the airstrikes, one hit a
school in the town which was being used to house civilians from the
surrounding area displaced by the fighting. At least 33 civilians
were killed.
The Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said 33 dead had been recovered from the
rubble so far, and that only two survivors had been recovered yet.
Raqqa is being slaughtered silently, another NGO, reported the school
sheltered around 50 displaced families, which might suggest the toll
will continue to rise.
The Pentagon
is, as always, evasive about the civilian casualties, confirming that
they carried out multiple airstrikes in the immediate vicinity of the
incident, but saying that there is “no evidence” that they hit a
school in the course of that.
If
confirmed, which seems probable, this would be the second US strike
causing large civilian casualties in Syria in a week, with the
previous attack further west in the village of al-Jineh destroying
part of a mosque and killing at least 49 civilians, and according to
some reports as many as 75.
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